


Cast No Shadow

by devot (devotfeige)



Category: Persona 4
Genre: End-Game spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 09:39:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18826066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devotfeige/pseuds/devot
Summary: "Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."





	Cast No Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> originally written/posted to LiveJournal in 2010

_Everyone has a shadow_ ; he knows this as truth, takes it as fact, and the look of pride and envy and guidance in each of their eyes kills the words on his lips. Thick and poisonous, they sit in his throat like sand or sludge; choke the life from him, knot his stomach until nausea is the only thing he knows.   
  
He doesn't speak.  
  
Silence; but the words, all grit and molasses, slide down his throat in thick tendrils--seep into the corners of his mind to rot and coagulate.  
  
Nametame had a shadow. Adachi had a shadow; reveled in it,  _became_  it. Why should he be any different? Why should they believe so steadfastly in this sleight of hand, this twisted and misshapen representation of all he's come to understand?  
  
The words (mud and gravel, blood and  _fog_ ) sit unbidden in his mind, in the air he breathes, in the pit of his stomach, and yellow glass eyes watch his every step with contempt and derision. Fingers in his mouth, around his throat, slow and sultry whispers hot against his ear that chill his very bones, leave him weak and trembling and;  _They can never see._  
  
_How disappointed would they be, oh fearless leader? How much hate and spite and disappointment would such weakness be deserving of? Not enough, it could never be enough--_  
  
They look to him as an unshakable, level-headed pillar of support. In turmoil he is calm, can think over any situation rationally and logically in that single split second where the next words make all the difference. Life or death, do or die, all eyes (yellow glass--omnipotent, always there, a gentle whisper against his spine;  _they need you they need what they think is you they never needed you_ ) on him.  
  
_Everyone has a shadow_ , and the words (fog and fog and  _fog and--_ ) are all he breathes, all he hears, all he sees; some just hide it better than others.


End file.
